Staff Reporter :
Bangladesh’s internet banking services continued to grow throughout last year, with the number of users and daily transactions rising to new highs, central bank data showed Monday.
During January-November 2021, 34,836,485 internet-banking transactions valuing Tk 1, 36,076.4 crore were carried out.
During the period, 4,10,30,262 bank customers made transactions through internet banking.
The value of internet banking transactions stood at Tk 17,000.4 crore in November 2021 while it was Tk 8,543.4 crore in January 2021.
While, the number of internet banking users came to 43, 06,170 in November 2021 from 33, 19,668 in January 2021, according to the data from the Bangladesh (BB).
“In the last few years, internet banking services in Bangladesh have shown significant growth, reflecting the favourable impact of the BB’s policies in shifting customer preferences,Expansion in digital payment infrastructure as well as the emergence of new payment aggregators has played a role in this growth. In line with its declared objectives to digitise payment and financial services, BB will continue promoting digitisation in the country and expects the industry to support these efforts, which will increase convenience and financial inclusion for all banking customers in Bangladesh,” said Md. Serajul Islam, Executive Director and spokesperson of BB.
Bankers said internet banking has been gaining popularity gradually in the country in recent years and the Covid-19 pandemic has boosted the service.
Since the beginning of Covid crisis in the country in March 2020, people have become more cautious and have been trying to maintain social distancing in their day-to-day activities, including banking transactions, they said.
They said that internet banking facilitated customers to execute their banking transactions from the safety of their homes and avoid the risk of any physical contact.
“The ongoing pandemic has led to a sharp increase in digital banking. A large number of people staying at home are turning to digital channels, both online and mobile, to fulfil most of their banking requirements without physical contact. As a result, transaction through internet banking has grown tremendously, “said Dr Ahsan H Mansur, Chairman of BRAC Bank Limited.
Bangladesh Bank data showed that the amount of transactions through internet banking stood at Tk 8,477.3 crore in February 2021.
The amount of internet banking transactions exceeded Tk 8,000 crore for the first time in November 2020 when the transition value reached Tk 8,188.9 crore from Tk 6,286.7 crore in the previous month.
In December 2020, the transaction value stood at Tk 8,092.6 crore.
